Shame On You, Mike Johnson, You Ignorant Schlub!

​     It's bad enough that Southern California is burning, that tens of thousands have lost their homes and all their possessions, and that those of us with loved ones there are worried and heart sick.
​       Bad enough is the stress, sorrow, fear and suffering of those wildfire victims who've lost everything, 

...including their neighborhoods, which will need to be cleaned of the toxic mess left behind from burned cars, houses, chemical products, and horrific amounts of other things before those areas will even be habitable again.

      All of that is terrible enough without Republican Speaker of the House - and by extension steward of the distribution of Federal disaster aid - Mike Johnson, 

...making the statement that emergency disaster aid to the devastated areas of California needs to be tied to "conditions." Said Johnson about whether he and his fellow Congressional Republicans would in fact put conditions on the distribution of aid to California: 
​        "I think we ought to have a serious conversation about that.  Obviously, there has been water resource mismanagement, forest management mistakes, all sorts of problems. It appears to us that state and local leaders were derelict in their duty in many respects, so that's something that has to be factored in. I think there should probably be conditions on that aid. That's my personal view. We'll see what the consensus is. Conditions (will definitely be) part of the discussion."
           How cruel. And how unseemly for a man in a position of great power whose responsibility is the welfare of all Americans, not just those living in states that reliably vote for his political party. And how far from the Golden Rule written in the gospel of Saint Matthew - do unto others as you would have them do unto you - is the attitude of this publicly  self-proclaimed, self-righteous, uber-pious Bible-quoting Christian,

​...whose own state of Louisiana was devastated 20 years ago by Hurricane Katrina and to whose residents massive aid and help were sent not only from the Federal government and the Red Cross but from compassionate Americans all over the country.

      And on top of that...how ignorant. How ​ignorant to call California's state and local leaders derelict in their duty. Has Mike Johnson not been following the news and all the information and analysis that's been on new sites everywhere since the fires broke out?
       Does the Speaker of the House not know that California is the best equipped state in the country to deal with wildfires? That fire prevention is built into the state's building codes and that all local fire departments are backed up by CalFire, the state agency with a multi-billion dollar budget and some of the world's best-trained firefighters? That California residents living in fire risk zones are required to create "defensible space" around their properties by clearing away vegetation? That climate change has made for higher temperatures, drier vegetation, and more and hotter wildfires in the American West that, as we've now unfortunately learned, can defy the wealthiest, most resource-rich state with the most stringent fire prevention regulations? Does Mike Johnson know that?
          I learned all that from one news article in the New York Times by climate reporter Christopher Flavelle. Didn't Speaker Johnson have access to that article?
            Didn't he read anywhere that, thanks to good rain and snowfall last year the reservoirs around Los Angeles were filled to brimming, that there was no water shortage, even with one reservoir in the fire zone empty and off line for repairs? 
           Doesn't he know that the reason some fire hydrants went dry was not because there wasn't enough water or hydrants or hoses or fire fighters, but because these fires were so enormous, so strong, so fast moving and relentless that the flames sucked up water faster than the main storage tanks and reservoirs could supply the water to the hydrants? Does he understand the power of the Santa Ana winds that are propelling the flames, and that each burning ember flying through the air can ignite a house or a tree or brush that will produce a hundred more embers to ignite the next flame? Does he understand the problem of firefighting in wildland-urban interface - that is, where human activity and development intermingle with natural areas?
         Does he understand that fighting wildfires depends greatly on the use of planes that drop water and spray fire retardant on the ground but that this time the ferociousness of the Santa Ana winds has been preventing the planes from aiding the ground battle against the fires? Does he realize that those winds, in tandem with a mass of dry vegetation, are what's keeping the fires alive and growing and that as long as the winds blow the fire will grow and dwarf our human efforts to contain it?
         Is Mr. Johnson not aware that not all wildfire management policies are in the hands of the state? That current Federal environmental laws place considerable obstacles to controlled burning of vegetation that would reduce the risk of wildfires but also cause dangerous smoke pollution? 
           Hasn't Mike Johnson been educating himself on the history and circumstance and attendant factors regarding the California wildfires? Has he been  reading any of the news articles that have been disseminating all the above information and more, making it clear that the problem of the California wildfires is far more complex than the simplistic, inane, uninformed, at times false or misleading and, of course, politically-driven verbiage that he and some of his fellow Republicans have been spouting?
            In truth  chances are that Mike Johnson is in fact at least as much up on the  news of the California wildfires as I am and subsequently knows at least as much about the complex reality of the situation as I do. He probably knows quite a bit more. In which case his ignorance is not of the mind, but of the soul.  Shame on you, Mike Johnson.

​References
https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/conditions-should-be-placed-on-california-wildfire-aid-house-speaker-mike-johnson/ar-BB1roZvz

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/10/climate/california-fires-climate-change.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/09/us/los-angeles-fire-water-hydrant-failure.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/10/us/wildfires-pacific-palisades-water-shortage.html

https://www.newsweek.com/controlled-burns-california-forest-management-los-angeles-fires-2012492